


Reminiscing

by Wordsandlovers



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Engagement, Future Fic, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Married Life, alec is a sap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 01:23:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12972630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wordsandlovers/pseuds/Wordsandlovers
Summary: Alec reminisces on the precise moment that he first knew that he wanted Magnus in his life forever. This happens to be on a rainy day in London when Magnus made him feel truly safe and completely loved.





	Reminiscing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [clockworkswan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/clockworkswan/gifts).



The morning sun was warm and comforting, making Magnus look even more beautiful than usual. It was always a welcome sight when Alec opened his eyes in the morning and saw the man that he loved lying next to him. He would never get tired of the feeling that he got when he saw his husband, a rush of warmth that came over him and made his fingers tingle. 

Magnus was lying on his side, facing Alec without makeup or anything to guard him from the man that he loved. Even though it had been years ago, Alec couldn’t help but be reminded of the first time that he had ever woken up in Magnus’ bed. It had been a shock, at first, that everything had been real, the bed, the sex, Magnus resting his head on his shoulder. He had tried to make a joke to break the tension but it hadn’t landed right. Magnus had thought that Alec would rather hurry off to the institute than stay in bed with him, he had wanted to assure him that he wanted to stay with him for as long as possible, but he hadn’t had the right words for it yet. He had tried to ask what Magnus’ fears were, he never wanted to cause Magnus to feel that vulnerable or afraid again. 

Alec knew now that what he had wanted to tell him was something that he said most mornings that he woke up wrapped up in Magnus’ arms. He loved him, and he never wanted to let him go. It had been a long road to getting engaged, miscommunication, and apologies, and blurting out feelings. He reminisced about the engagement as he watched Magnus blink against the golden sunlight, waking up to the sight of Alec with mussed hair and a soft expression of fondness and love.

It had been raining when the idea had come to him, nothing like that morning where they lay in the warmth of the sun. The clouds had been darker than usual and Magnus had wrapped his arms around him after he had tensed up from a particularly load roll of thunder. They had been shopping in London when it had started raining, ducking beneath an archway. There were far too many people around for them to portal out of there, and Magnus had been particularly keen to get to a certain shop that they hadn’t been to yet. 

Just from that one touch from Magnus made Alec feel instantly better. A smile taking over his face, Alec had been thinking about how much he wanted Magnus to be around him whenever he felt the fear and sickness that came over him when he was faced with a storm or his family being in danger. He wanted Magnus to be his, forever. That was one of the first times that he had realised that it was a possibility for him to marry Magnus and that there was nothing really stopping him.

They spent a while under that archway, Magnus probably could have summoned an umbrella for them but it had been nice to stand so close and breathe each other's air in a new city that they were exploring together. While Magnus had told his boyfriend stories of his adventures in London that he had been on in his very long life the rain had calmed down. Alec had kissed him gently before pulling Magnus after him and then kissing him again, with the rain hitting them. Magnus had been laughing at his cliche and mundane like actions while he warmed them up with a spell. Alec’s favourite kisses had always been the ones that they broke away from laughing, he loved it when Magnus was happy.

They had run through the dark streets of London somewhat unnecessarily while holding hands and laughing as they made their way towards the shop that Magnus had been insistent on going to before they portaled home to their apartment. They came through the door in a flurry of coats and raindrops falling from Alec’s hair onto what looked like expensive carpet. Once Alec looked around at the shop that they had hurried into he realised that they were in a jewellery shop and he almost blushed when he remembered his thoughts of buying an engagement ring moments before. 

It was quite an open shop, with much more space inside than you might have expected from the street, and there was plenty of room to spread out and lose sight of Magnus. Magnus had started to talk to one of the sales assistants about something in one of the cases. Alec caught a glimpse of something across the room, something silver and beautiful, and he went to get a closer look. He leaned over the case and into the thick glass at something leaning against a purple cloth covered box. It was a necklace that had a small jewel on a pendant, the jewel was the colour of red wine, a colour that he instantly associated with Magnus and the beautiful clothes that he wore and the alcohol that they would occasionally drink together.

Something that he had discovered that day had been the fact that the shop workers in London were less confrontational than those in New York, although Alec had hardly been the regular shopper before he had started to see Magnus and really come into his own. When Alec looked up from the case he expected to see an assistant looming over him. Instead, he spotted one standing a few cases down that had probably been looking at him while his back was turned. He didn’t want Magnus to notice that he wanted to buy the necklace so he continued to look around at the other things in the case. In the corner there were rings, sets of them, in all different colours and designs. He liked the black and gold ones but he knew that they wouldn’t go with the rest of Magnus’ jewellery, and he was a good boyfriend that understood these things. The simple bands of black and silver stood out to him as the best options but he got pulled out of thought by someone clearing their throat. 

“Can I help you with anything?” A young girl in a uniform asked him from behind the line of cases. 

“Um- well.”

“Oh, were you looking at those rings? They are some of the engagement rings that we have on offer, there are some more over there.” She pointed to another side of the store without breaking eye contact. It was kind of creepy. “You must be shopping for someone really special.” She smiled in a kind way that made Alec slightly more comfortable. 

“H-How much do these cost, the silver and black set?” He said, trying to not sound like he was way out of his depth.

“Well it depends on the materials, I can show you if you’d like. Unless you have a price range that you are working with?” She was surprisingly non-judgemental about the whole thing.

“What about the ones in the case, do the cheaper ones look the same?”

“Those ones are the £1,437 ones, but there are also ones that are slightly different colours around the middle that are £3,500 and there are some similar ones but in different designs more like these ones that are £5,270.” 

Alec was out of his depth. 

“There’s also a way to get a discount if you are a member here.” 

He definitely couldn’t buy those rings at that moment even if Magnus had a card for the shop.

“I’ll have to think about it.” The assistant nodded in understanding and wasn’t at all angry like Alec had suspected she might get once she realised that he wasn't going to buy anything. He was about to go back over to Magnus when he remembered the necklace that had caught his eye. “How much is the red necklace?” 

“Twenty pounds, sir.” That was much more in his price range, he didn’t even have to go and ask Magnus for some more British money. He handed over the money while he looked over his shoulder to see if Magnus was done with what looked like an argument with someone important. He wasn’t. 

“Would you like it gift wrapped, sir? For that special someone?”

“Yeah, he’ll like that.” Once she had done what looked like an incredibly complicated bow with ribbon on top of the box and placed it carefully in a bag Alec had become increasingly skittish and wanted to wrap this exchange up as quickly as possible. He carefully placed the bag in one of the other, slightly larger bags that he had been carrying around. He had a moment of remembrance of the time that he had bought Magnus an omamori charm, they had hardly been dating at that point, it was strange to look back on.

Magnus was holding a jewel up to the light by the time that Alec made his way over to him, the casual gesture of an arm around his waist was met with a brilliant smile from Magnus. He was warm, and the rain had stopped, Magnus was telling him all about his favourite type of jewels to have in his jewellery as Magnus casually paid a large amount of money to one of the men around him and was passed a purple bag with silver veins running across it. Alec couldn’t help but think of the rings that he had seen, how perfectly they had matched with how he thought of Magnus. 

The rings had still been on his mind the morning after when Magnus made him waffles to eat in bed, and the morning after that, when Magnus had tackled him onto the bed after he opened the gift wrapped necklace that Alec had bought him. The words got stuck in his throat and he kept not knowing whether he should say ‘I love you’ or ‘I want to marry you’, or somewhere in-between; ‘I want to be with you forever’. It was about a week after that trip to London that Alec approached the subject of Marriage to Isabelle. She was the one that he trusted the most and she was probably the best person to ask about mundane rituals, her attitudes to mundanes had changed so much after they had helped her with her addiction. 

“I want to marry Magnus.” The two of them were sitting on the floor of his office like they used to do when they were kids, Alec didn’t have any work and Magnus was busy so they were just talking about everything that was happening in their lives.

“No shit.” Izzy laughed as she pulled at a loose thread of the pillow that she was leaning on.

“Izzy, I’m serious.” 

“Okay, so why don’t you ask him?” She said it as if it was the simplest thing in the world, and in some ways it was, but he wanted it to be special.

“I want it to be perfect, and I found these rings that I think he would like but I don’t really know anything about mundane weddings, or if he would even want one.” 

“Right,” She said, nodding her head, “So you’re going to have some things to talk through. And money? I can’t really help you out there, big brother.”

“No, I don’t need money, exactly, but the rings are in a shop in London, and my only way of getting there is Magnus.”

“Oh, that complicates things.” Alec grunted in agreements and face planted into the nearest pillow, Izzy rubbed his back slowly, making him feel better. “He’ll say yes though, I know he will.”

“Thanks, Izz.”

The answer, of course, was Dot and Catarina. The two women were some of Magnus’ oldest friends and had become quite close with Alec over the years that he had been dating Magnus. The two of them had agreed to take Alec shopping in London as long as Alec was up for babysitting Madzie quite a bit in the near future. He had agreed instantly as that seemed like a win-win to him, he loved hanging out with the young warlock, they got along surprisingly well, the ice cream was what really made Madzie like him but he wasn’t going to tell Dot and Catarina that.

Alec wasn’t particularly good at lying to his boyfriend but he had made some excuse for doing some overseas work with Catarina and distracting him with deep kisses. It was another overcast day in London but as he made his way down the roads he felt particularly joyous. He was walking ahead of his friends a bit but they were being romantic so it was probably for the best that he was picking up his pace as he headed towards the jewellery shop. 

Once inside Alec instantly recognised that the nice girl from the time before wasn’t there. There weren’t many people there, actually, and Alec stood frozen in place for a few moments before putting his head down and making his way to the rings that he had wanted to get. With all of the things that Alec had been thinking of since he had been there before he was hesitant to go ahead with the purchase, not because he had different feelings towards Magnus than he had before, he definitely felt just as in love with Magnus as ever, it was more like how he had felt like the last few years had been working up to this one moment and it was too overwhelming.

A man in a uniform and a name tag approached Alec, trying to catch his eye. Alec felt itchy all over. he heard the bell over the door chime and he didn’t have to turn around to know that it was Dot and Catarina.

“Sir, are you looking for something?” The shop worker said in an accent that Alec didn’t recognise. He glanced up from the rings that were encased in glass.

“Yes, I mean, no. I wanted to buy these rings?” Alec swallowed nervously.

The man smiled at Alec and asked a series of questions that Alec stumbled over the answers for while Catarina stood slightly behind him and answered some of the questions for him. Alec’s heart was beating loudly and Catarina had to help him sort through the money and hand it over. Earlier in the day the two warlocks and Alec had gone to a shop to exchange some of Alec’s money into pounds and he had been very confused by some of the money. 

The man asked whether he wanted the ring gift wrapped and Alec almost said yes out of instinct, he was so used to buying things that he thought would make his boyfriend happy that he almost didn’t realise that he wouldn’t be giving the rings to Magnus once he got home. He took the small jewellery box as it was and stowed it away in his jacket. He left the shop happy and as the three of them stopped at a small cafe on a side street he had to wipe his eyes as he was so emotional about the situation. 

After Dot and Catarina dropped him off at the loft that afternoon they had wished him luck and hugged him briefly before conjuring a portal back to their apartment on the other side of the city, where Madzie was waiting for them. Alec put the small box under a jumper that was in the bottom of one of the sets of draws in their apartment. Before tucking it away he had drawn a small rune on the base of the box, an unseen rune, to keep it hidden if Magnus worked his way through all the draws in the house to find a particular piece of jewellery like he had done before. The memory had made him smile at the thought of how Magnus had been so insistent that he had to find that particular necklace because “Nothing else will do.”

The evening after Alec’s second visit to the jewellery shop Jace and Izzy came round the apartment for a partial family dinner. It hadn’t been his plan to tell Jace strait away as he was notoriously bad at keeping secrets but once he saw Izzy’s sly grin he knew that Jace would be asking all about what he couldn’t get out of the much more loyal sibling. After Jace had given him a look that he knew meant that he was about to say something that Alec was going to want to hit him for he dragged him out of the room and into the kitchen under the excuse that he wanted Jace to help with the cooking. After a few complaints of being manhandled Jace calmed down and raised his eyebrows expectantly. Alec ignored him in order to draw a soundless rune on the back of the kitchen door.

“I’m going to propose to Magnus.” Alec whispered in a way that was obviously unnecessary. 

Jace’s eyes lit up and he tackled his brother into a tight hug. “I’m so happy for you. He’s gonna say yes. Oh my God. Is this really happening?”

“Well it’s not happening today if that’s what you’re thinking. And I don’t want any advice from you, that’s what Izz is for, your love life has always been a mess.” 

Jace feigned offence for a moment before devolving into happy laughter that was a new and lovely sound. Alec couldn’t help but join in. “We should get back, they’re probably talking about all of the embarrassing things you’ve ever done.”

“They’re definitely talking about how annoying you are.” Alec countered.

“Excuse you.” Jace playfully slapped Alec’s arm.

“Ow.” Alec reached up and drew a line through the silencing rune on the door to make the symbol fade into the dark wood around it.

The rest of the dinner went by without mention of questions or rings even if Jace and Izzy passed several meaningful looks between them. Magnus had talked animatedly about a trip to the Spanish beaches that he had gone on with Catarina several years before and how he wanted to take Izzy on a trip like that. Alec loved how much Magnus was invested in the lives of his siblings and how much he really cared. Alec felt his love for Magnus wash over him as he looked at him sitting next to his sister in such a familiar way. 

It was a few days later when Alec woke up to a warm bed and an even warmer Magnus wrapped around him when Alec was reminded of the feeling that he got on that rainy London day. Just the fact that Magnus was there, and holding him, made him so unbelievably in love with him. 

It was later in the day when Alec was filled with a nervous energy and was flipping the ring box in his hands. He had left the bed that morning and had gone to the institute. It had been hard to leave Magnus but he had promised to come home early that day and had given Magnus more kisses than he normally did. Once at the institute he had informed Izzy that he was going to ask him as soon as possible and showed her the rings. They had been alone in his office and she had made some incredible high pitched noises that he hadn’t heard before. He had been thinking so fast before she had visited his office and then when she had hugged him his mind cleared and it didn’t seem so complicated anymore. He loved a man, and he was going to marry him. 

It was hard to work up the courage to open the door. He knew that it was silly to not want to open the door to his own apartment but he knew that if he went in and saw Magnus that he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. There was no turning back from that moment. But he wasn’t being dramatic or anything. When he finally did go through the door Magnus popped out from the kitchen and greeted him with a kiss.

“I was wondering when you were going to get back, I missed you.” Magnus ran his hand over the side of Alec’s face, admiring his boyfriend.

Alec just looked at the stunning man in front of him for a moment before he took Magnus’ hands in his. “Are you free to portal us somewhere?”

“Now? Yeah, totally. Where do you want to go?”

Alec smiled wide at Magnus’ response, it was an unspoken fact that they would follow each other anywhere. “I was thinking Tokyo, our second date, that beautiful balcony.” Alec watched Magnus smile at the memory.

“Feeling sentimental?” Magnus leaned into another kiss as he conjured a portal in their living room with a small hand movement. 

“Something like that.” They were still holding hands when the went through the portal together. They didn’t appear on the balcony the way that Alec might have suspected, they instead stepped out of the portal and onto a side street that appeared to be relatively close to the balcony. It was a common occurrence for the two of them to appear in such places as to not cause a fright to anyone but with Alec’s racing thoughts he hadn’t considered that Magnus wouldn’t portal them straight to the balcony. It was a bit jarring. 

As they made their way through the bustling streets towards the hotel Alec kept his eyes on the back of Magnus’ head while his heart kept on beating harder and harder. He hadn’t been that nervous since he had received his first rune, and maybe when he had almost got married the first time. Neither of those memories were entirely happy though so he had tried not to think about them too much. 

After Magnus had led him into the hotel and signed in at the reception the two of them ran up the stairs while laughing as they had done the first time that they were there and Alec had challenged Magnus to a race, Magnus had tried to object when Alec had already gone up a flight of stairs. The results of both of those races were the two of them kissing at the top of the stairs in between giggles and heavy breaths. 

The balcony was just as beautiful as Alec remembered, he was so overwhelmed by the knowledge of what he was about to do that he didn’t even really take it in, Magnus was leaning on the railing catching his breath but Alec stayed back for a short moment, just long enough for Magnus to look back at him, that was a moment that he wasn’t ever going to forget, this backdrop of beauty at dusk with the love of his life looking back at him full of love and happiness. 

“Magnus… I-“ He had to look away, he always did that, when he was nervous about telling Magnus something. He reached into his jacket to get the ring box out again and he saw Magnus’ face go from confused and concerned to a sudden realisation and shock. No going back. “I love you, more than anything.” He knelt down. “I want to be with you forever, and I want to marry you. So… if you want to, will you marry me?” He waited for a horrible moment before Magnus said anything.

“Oh my God.” Magnus’ words caused Alec to get a sudden rush of panic. “Yes. Of course. I’ve never- No one’s ever proposed to me before. I want nothing more than to marry you and spend as long as possible with you. My Alexander.”

“Oh thank the angel.” He laughed in relief and happiness as Magnus got on the floor of the balcony with him and kissed him harder than ever.

They stayed in the hotel room that they had got that evening and took a portal to the Institute the following morning. The two of them were standing in Alec’s office with Izzy, Jace, Clary, Simon, Maryse, Luke, Catarina and Dot sitting on various chairs and sofas. That was when they announced that they were getting married, they were met by cheers and a very large group hug with the couple in the middle of it. After that, the group headed to the hunter’s moon after that suggestion by Simon and Jace. 

It was there, where they were surrounded by their friends and family drinking and dancing to the songs on the jukebox, were Alec saw just how many people loved and accepted him. It was such a different experience to when he had been engaged the first time, in such a wonderful way. The two of them were curled together in the corner of the bar, Magnus was kissing Alec, who was leaning against the pool table, a momentum of their first date, every so often they would break apart to smile at each other in a sappy way that Catarina had already sarcastically mocked several times already.

“I never thought that I could have any of this. You’re the best thing to ever happen to me.” He took his finance’s hands in his and looked at him with all the honesty that he had. Their rings were cold to the touch but after the first time that they had put the on Alec had started to play with his or Magnus’ rings as if saying that their relationship calmed him and comforted him when he was feeling overwhelmed. 

He loved his fiancé in a way that was complete and all-consuming, more than anything else that he had ever felt. When he looked at Magnus he was always sure that he would never be able to look away. A coldness would touch his heart whenever he had to be apart from him and he couldn’t think of a way of telling him that without falling over his own words. 

From the way that Magnus was holding him, it seemed as if he already knew what Alec wanted to say to him. It was always amazingly reassuring to know that there was at least one person that knew him better than he knew himself. Alec blushed as he took a sip of some alcoholic drink that he had chosen because it had reminded him of Magnus and it filled his insides with a slowly consuming warmth that made him feel just as safe and secure as the loft, their home. 

He used to get the complete opposite reaction around the substance, scared for what he would say about himself to anyone listening or what he would do when his mind was foggy and not focused. His closeted self would never have felt that way about a drink and that was just one of the ways that showed just how different Alec’s life was now that he was with Magnus. He had been told before on several occasions that he was a sentimental and sappy drunk and he would probably have to agree with that, but no one else needed to know. 

When Alec looked back on the nights leading up to and following their engagement he felt lighter and filled with a joy that he had never thought that he could have before Magnus walked into his life. Their wedding had been quiet and quaint, outside in a venue that Magnus had gushed about and everything was for once refreshingly mundane and the best that Alec could have ever hoped for. His mother had given him away with a teary smile and he had almost cried himself when he saw Magnus standing there in a gorgeous gold suit and a look of pure love directed at his fiancé. 

The two men had been surrounded by love and affection from almost everyone in their lives and, as Alec lay next to his husband in a bed drenched in golden light, it was hard for his mind not to drift back to that moment in the rain when he had come to the realisation that he very much wanted to marry that man. It was almost absurd to Alec that he had ever not felt that way, and without that moment cemented in his mind he would have probably believed that there was nothing other than marriage that the two of them would have always been heading to. 

“Good morning.” Alec whispered to the bleary-eyed Magnus that was rubbing his eyes. He looked soft and comfortable in a way that warmed Alec’s heart. 

Instead of a wordy response that you might expect from someone as wise and elegant as Magnus he merely grunted and tried to pull Alec closer to him. Alec went without any objection and kissed his husband on the cheek gently before attempting to get a response out of the man once again. 

“Magnus.” He quietly said into the side of his face that had been turned to him when Magnus had rolled around so that he was under Alec a lot more than he had been before. Alec looked to where Magnus had grabbed onto his bear hip and saw some of the early morning light reflect off of the one ring that he had kept on through the night and for the majority of the time that he had owned it. The sight of the ring spurred Alec on to wake his husband up in a more effective manner and ended up crawling all over the other man until he finally scowled and pouted up at him with sleep at the corners of his eyes. 

“What do you want from me?” He asked in a whiny way that suggested that he would have preferred to stay asleep tucked into the side of Alec.

“I want to tell you that I love you and that you’re beautiful, and kind, and absolutely stunning, and surprisingly attractive when grumpy.” 

“I’ll try and be more pissed off at you then.”

“You’re so dramatic.” Alec snorted out laughter as ran his hand over Magnus’ chest.

“You love it.” Magnus said, attempting to roll out from under Alec, getting stuck and resolving to sit up and then nuzzle into the side of Alec’s neck.

“Yeah. I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! I wrote this for a fic exchange for the current hiatus before season 3 airs.


End file.
